Senate passage of the bill occurred as expected. First, 25 Republicans joined all members of the Democratic caucus in voting to limit debate on the measure — thereby killing an attempted filibuster by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and their allies. Sixty votes were needed. The final vote was 79-19; two Republicans did not vote.

The vote to limit debate, or invoke cloture, occurred before the vote to strip the Obamacare defunding provision, which was key to those Republicans' calculations. All five members of the GOP leadership voted to cut off debate on the bill.

The Senate also overcame a 60-vote threshold on a vote to waive budget points of order against the bill. Again, several Republicans joined Democrats to leap that hurdle in the 68-30 vote.

But Democrats shouldered the burden in stripping language to defund the 2010 health care law. In the 54-44 vote — which only needed a simple majority to prevail — all Republicans voted to keep the House language.

The Senate then voted, 54-44, to send the bill back to the House. Again, only a simple majority was needed.

House GOP leaders have been scrambling for days to find a plan that would get them to 218 votes, and without any sort of health care language, they might not be able to pass a bill without Democratic help. Sources say the GOP leadership team has tried to impress upon rank-and-file members that they would be blamed in the event of the shutdown, but so far that effort has not helped.

In the Senate, a rift between the majority of the caucus and Cruz and Lee blew out into the open Thursday, with Lee, Cruz and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., hashing it out on the floor. Corker tried to create separation between the GOP conference and the two tea party members, saying that they were the only ones keeping a bill from being dispatched to the House, despite the urging of House leaders to send legislation as soon as possible.